Education News

Education News: April 14-20, 2012

The legislature returned from Easter/Passover break on Monday and was quick to start back at work. The Integration Revenue Replacement Task Force report was heard in the House Education Finance committee on Monday, April 16. The committee heard testimony from Scott Thomas, Integration Revenue Replacement Advisory Task Force Co-Chair and Integration and Education Equity Coordinator for the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District and Peter Swanson, Integration Revenue Replacement Advisory Task Force Co-Chair and attorney. Thomas reviewed the task force process and gave an overview of the report and Swanson commented on his opposition to the report. The co-chairs responded to questions and gave clarifications on the specifics and intentions of the report. The committee did not take action on HF 2840 (Mariani) and testimony was restricted to the task force co-chairs.

The conference committee on HF 2949 (omnibus education bill) began meeting this week. On Thursday, the committee released a delete-all A12 amendment that reflected an attempt to address the Department of Education’s concerns. The Commissioner testified on the new language and pointed out continued areas of concern. The committee returned today with an agreement with the Commissioner and finalized the conference committee report. AMSD has summarized the report with amendments here: http://www.amsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/HF-2949-and-SF-2482-with-amendments-42012.pdf

The conference committees on HF 2244 (permanent school fund) and SF 1528 (online learning) have also been meeting this week. AMSD has developed a contact sheet for members of these active education conference committees here: